How to Make a Unique Bench from Chairs

Let’s make a bench from old chairs! Do you have a few old chairs laying around? Not sure what to do with them? Why not repurpose those chairs into a unique bench?. You can use chairs that are all the same or mix it up and build your DIYbench with different style chairs. The world is your creative oyster.

As a added bonus this post is part of the Power Tool Challenge! This months challenge is themed ‘repurposed’. The project must be a repurpose and use at least one power tool. The best part of this months project is that we are opening it up to YOU. You can enter to win great new tools from Ryobi. Find more info at the bottom of the post.

Unfinished Old Chairs

These vintage chairs had been sitting in my storage unit for what feels like forever. They were “just in case” chairs. You know the kind that you keep just in case you might need an extra chair one day. Well, now as I am clearing out my storage unit they’ve turned into “what am I going to do with these chairs? chairs” They seem perfect for an easy repurpose project to turn them into a bench. But you know how that goes, when something is supposed to be quick and easy – it rarely really is.

How to Make a Bench from Two Chairs

The first step in making a bench from chairs is to flip the chairs over and pop off the seats. Here are a few problems that you could run into:

stripped screws

access to screws blocked

screws with glue (difficult to remove)

Stick with it, you can get them off. I confess there was kicking involved in this process for me. Not one of my finer moments.

Remember I mentioned that I thought this would be an easy project? I figured I would only have a few easy steps to complete the project:

remove chair seats

cut bench to size

attach bench seat

finished

But again things don’t always go as planned. Since the seats on these chairs have curves we must address the space between the seat an the back. See what I mean below.

Make sure to see what those chair seats (actually one chair seat) is used for! Its a true repurpose project: DIY Image Transfer Sign

Cutting Bench Seat to Fit Chairs

Next, you will need a piece of wood for your bench seat. You can use scrap wood if you have it. Since I do not have an adequate piece of wood laying around I am purchasing a stain grade solid wood panel. Because of this I also do not want to screw this up. I need to cut the bench to fit correctly the first time to avoid additional unnecessary expenses.

Time to create a template. Using posterboard you can line up the board to the curved back of the chairs, measure where the notches should be to create a template. I will tell you the truth – this took multiple attempts and a bit of a mess. A few times I was sure that the template was perfect, but it didn’t fit.

After multiple tries, I finally got it. I’m not even sure what I was doing wrong the first few times. But it eventually fit perfectly. At one point I even asked hubby for help. Clearly, he didn’t want to help me because he said it can’t be done (which really means I dont want to). To that, I replied: “you built a shed, a basement, and a kitchen! Don’t tell me it cant be done!” I’m glad he didn’t help me because it forced me to figure it out for myself.

Marking Your Bench Seat

Now that you have your template and you are certain that the notches are correct you can pencil mark your wood panel. Place the cardboard/posterboard template on your wood panel and trace your notches where you will need to cut out.

Also, if your wood panel is longer than you need your bench seat to be; make sure to mark where to trim the sides.

Love to build?

Cutting a Bench Seat from a Wood Panel

Grab your jigsaw and if you don’t have a workbench you can use your chairs. At least that’s what I do. 🙂

Carefully cut along your pencil marks using your jigsaw. Yes, I often work in pajamas. 😛

After you finish making your cuts you will want to smooth the edges of the bench seat. Using a router and decorative router set you can choose your edge style.

I’m using the roundover edge for a simple and smooth edge.

Once you’ve finished making all of your cuts, test the fit to make sure that your bench seat fits properly. Though we know that it should since we tested the posterboard already 😉 Once it fits you can breathe a sigh of relief.

Painting a Wooden Chair Bench

This DIY chair bench will be heading to my kids’ school so I’ve decided to paint it using the school colors of blue and gold. Before painting your chairs make sure to clean and prep them. Click here to see How I Prep Painted Furniture. The chairs are painted all blue using Sailor from Kristi Kuehl Pure Home Paint.

To add a touch of gold the center bar along the back of the chairs are taped off using Scotch Blue Platinum. It’s my favorite painter’s tape lately because it tears at a perfect 90-degree angle every time! The center bar is painted in Saffron which is a sunshine yellow, just like my Painted Media Console.

After Saffron, the yellow bars are given a metallic gold glaze finish using Gold Hardware Opulence.

Don’t forget to seal your painted furniture for protection. The painted surface is distressed along the edges and sealed with Clear Satin Protective Sealer using my favorite yellow detailer sponge.

If you are just starting out you can start at the beginning with How to Paint Furniture – a Beginners Guide.

Staining a Wooden Chair Bench

I love the wood grain of these solid wood panels and don’t want to paint over the pattern. Make sure to sand the entire bench seat smooth paying extra attention to the notches. Use a fine grit sandpaper for best results. After you sand the seat you can stain the seat.

Teak creates a rich dark stain while still enhancing the details in the wood. The wooden bench seat is sanded with a fine grit sandpaper in between each coat of Teak wood stain for a super smooth finish.

Repurposed Bench from Two Chairs Assembly

Attaching the bench seat to the chairs is the final moment of truth. You can see how comical this step can be:

After a few mumbles cuss words, the bench seat is fitted to the chair base and we can secure it. To secure the seat you need to apply wood glue in between the wood panel and the chair legs. Next, secure with trigger clamps to hold them tightly together until the glue dries. I always place a clean paper plate between the clamp and the painted/stained surface to prevent any dirt transfer from the clamp.

Once the glue dries, remove the clamps and flip the bench over to secure with wood screws for the final step of our DIY chair bench. Access to the holes for the screws are blocked by the chair itself. This drive guide helps for this issue by extending the length of the drill bit. (I hope that makes sense)

By using the drive guide I can now get my screws into the holes to secure the seat.

DIY Bench from Chairs – Repurpose Project

Now this repurposedbench made from chairs can head to the kids’ school where it will be used for years to come.

Need a bench but prefer not to DIY? Find fantastic benches for sale here: Benches for sale

Power Tool Challenge

This months power tool challenge is open to everyone! The challenge is sponsored by Ryobi and you can add your own projects below for the chance to win awesome new tools from Ryobi! How fun! Make sure to check out my fellow friends’ projects and add your own below!

How to Enter

Now that you’ve seen our projects, let’s see yours! Reader’s are challenged to enter your favorite repurpose project. There is a maximum of four entries per person allowed. Everyone can enter up to four DIY repurposed projects.

How to enter:

Enter your project in the linky below. The linky will be open for 2 weeks (ending midnight November 2nd).

submit their own projects directly

make a Facebook post and share that link.

If any of you need help or want me to post your project for you just send me an email with your project photo to justthewoods@gmail.com, be sure to include your name and your project title too!

Must be 18 or older to win, giveaway and contest is open to USA resident only.

What You Can Win

There will be two Ryobi Power Tool Prizes!

One random drawing

One voted Best Repurposed Project Overall.

Every entry counts towards a chance in a random drawing.

The Prizes:

an 18 Volt One + jigsaw

or an 18 Volt One + Drill

The team and a Ryobi Power Tools team member will vote on ‘best overall project.’ The team will pick their top 3 choices and list them in order. The Winner voted best project gets to choose up to $230 of Ryobi Power Tools.

Kandice, First off, great minds! Second, that DIY outfit you had on when cutting the wood. I am soooo glad my counterparts dress as nice as I do! LOL I love your template idea, cardboard can be a girl’s best friend! Your bench turned out great and I love the deep blue!

I don’t think I’ve ever seen a stain grade solid wood panel board before. I love the way it looks and the way it took the stain. The blue and the dark stain are a perfect match-a wonderful marriage of old and new! 😉 You know I love a great chair bench! I have lots of chairs, but not sure any that would work together. Pinning! gail

What a great project! I can only imagine how many parents are going to admire this when they see it at your children’s school. I like your paper plate tip for clamps and also using poster board to make a template.

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Meet the Artist

Meet the Artist – Hey there and welcome to my blog! I’d like to introduce myself. I’m Kandice – I’m a mom of two wild, happy, loud and full of energy toddlers, I’m a Navy veteran, I’m a wife and I’m the artist behind Just the Woods, LLC.

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